As the ever-growing video-game industry becomes more like Hollywood – appealing to all ages and many tastes – there’s much greater pressure to keep the artists who create the games and the executives who market them from strangling each other.

That’s the crucial subplot in Electronic Arts’ recent $2 billion bid for Take-Two Interactive Software, the publisher behind uniquely fresh and edgy games such as “BioShock” and the “Grand Theft Auto” series. If Redwood City-based EA were to acquire Take-Two without holding on to the development visionaries behind the games, it could be a hollow achievement.

In the entertainment world, executives and creative teams are famous for being at each other’s throats over costs, schedules and artistic control. So, too, in the game industry where highly regarded development studios are acquired, but the most vital personnel remain with the new employer only as long as it takes to cash in stock options or fulfill a contract.

EA Chief Executive John Riccitiello is loudly preaching creative autonomy and has done all but submit a prenuptial agreement to pledge artistic freedom for Take-Two’s star developers. As a result, there’s a renewed focus on the scarcity and value of top talent and game brands, igniting a wave of speculation about other possible game company mergers or takeovers.

Theoretically, it’s too perilous to sit on the sidelines while competitors snap up all the geniuses and innovators.

“Suddenly, it’s, ‘Wow, things are consolidating fast,’ and there aren’t a lot of people left at the dance,” said Doug Creutz, a senior research analyst for Cowen and Company.

The business imperatives that can spur consolidation, such as having revenue from a wide variety of game genres, aren’t divorced from creative ambitions. It’s preferable, for instance, to invent original intellectual property instead of licensing characters and story lines from movie companies, TV networks and comic-book publishers. But living under the same corporate roof doesn’t mean they’re compatible.

“The idea of being artist-focused and giving developers autonomy is one thing,” said Mike Wilson, chief executive of independent publisher Gamecock Media Group in Austin. “But when you’re shipping 50 or 100 titles a year, it’s really hard to say that you’re product and artist driven.

“I would never want to pretend that I can outthink these big guys, but they’re a little trapped in a Wall Street model,” Wilson added. “They have to get bigger every year and increase profits every year, so creative risk is hard.”

Riccitiello has stressed that his interest inTake-Two is based on a respect for the originality and boldness of its games, as well as the ability to add EA’s distribution and marketing clout to Take-Two’s iconic “Grand Theft Auto” series.

During a conference call last week with industry analysts, Riccitiello was asked repeatedly about the prospects for retaining – and negotiating new contracts with – Sam and Dan Houser, brothers who helped found and still oversee Rockstar Games, the Take-Two studio that develops “Grand Theft Auto.” The Housers’ contracts reportedly expire in February 2009.

Riccitiello noted that EA’s label structure, which includes divisions such as EA Sports and EA Casual, “is inspired by some of the work that has taken place within Rockstar, and (by what) Sam Houser in particular believes on how these things ought to work.”

Riccitiello also was asked about guiding Take-Two games “in different directions” and he said, “I wouldn’t change a line of code in ‘BioShock,’ nor would I in GTA, nor would I in ‘Max Payne.’ I think that many titles these guys have put out are about as good as it gets. What we would do is sell more of it.”

As analyst Creutz pointed out, it’s a great world when a publisher can succeed by leaving developers alone. “But if they miss a ship date,” he said, “is it still OK to leave them alone?”

EA’s offer for New York-based Take-Two comes less than three months after the news of a Vivendi (“World of Warcraft) and Activision (“Guitar Hero”) merger valued at almost $19 billion. That followed EA’s announcement in October of its $860 million purchase of the BioWare and Pandemic studios.

“When you have one big deal, everybody wants to go down that road,” said analyst David Cole of DFC Intelligence. “It kind of comes in cycles, and it becomes the trendy thing to do.”

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